Jihad Terror Attack at OSU – Ohio State University

Ohio State attack: Police identify suspect as business student

The Columbus Dispatch • Monday November 28, 2016

Monday morning dawned on the Ohio State University campus in positive fashion. Students had just returned after visits home for Thanksgiving weekend. And they were still in a celebratory mood from the Buckeyes’ football win over rival Michigan on Saturday.

Nothing would have prepared anyone for what had happened by late morning.

A student, Ohio State police say, drove a car into a group of people standing outside a campus building, throwing some into the air and running over others. The driver then jumped from the car with a butcher knife, slashing more people. Less than a minute after the attack, an OSU police officer had shot and killed the man. In the end, 11 people were injured.

The suspect has been identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who was a Logistics Management major in the College of Business at Ohio State. Police said they believe he was 18 years old, though other reports have said he was 20. Records show he lived in western Franklin County, in Franklin Township. Records also show that he graduated with honors, with an associate’s degree, from Columbus State Community College in May before transferring this semester to Ohio State.

Police said the officer who shot and killed Artan is Ohio State University Police Officer Alan Horujko, 28, who has been with the police department since January 2015. He wasn’t injured.

Neighbors in the Havenwood Townhome complex just off Georgesville Road, where Artan lived, said police and the sheriff’s office bomb squad have been there since shortly before 11 am., not long after the situation on campus unfolded. Police crime-scene tape surrounds the complex and officers reportedly are working with federal officials from the FBI and Homeland Security to search his apartment.

For a time, officials believed a second suspect might be in the Lane Avenue garage, but they searched it and found no one. They have since said there was only one suspect. Surveillance footage from cameras on campus showed the suspect’s car entering campus at Kenny Road and Woody Hayes Drive, OSU Police Chief Craig Stone said. Other cameras recorded it on Woodruff Drive and on 19th Avenue. “We could tell that the suspect was in the car by himself,” Stone said.

Andrew Thomas, chief medical officer of Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, said that 11 people were hurt in the incident, two of whom were not transported by ambulance but sought medical care on their own later. All are expected to survive.

Of five at Wexner, two have stab wounds, two were hit by the car and one has cuts, Thomas said. One who came later had injuries from the car.

Two more went to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, both hit by the car. One has orthopedic injuries and one a skull fracture, Thomas said. At OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, two people were treated for lacerations and one went later with injuries from the car.

One woman was transported to a hospital by a Columbus fire medic with a gunshot wound to her foot, Fire Chief Kevin O’Connor said. Officials haven’t yet said how that happened, but the woman told medics she was running from the incident and called for help after reaching a safe place.

Thomas didn’t release the names of those injured, but said those at Wexner Medical Center included one faculty member, two graduate students and one undergraduate student. He said those at the OhioHealth hospitals included two undergraduates and two graduate students.

The attack happened outside of Watts Hall, at West 19th Street west of College Road, shortly before 10 a.m. Earlier in the morning, the building had been evacuated because of a report of a gas leak. Authorities say the report of a leak had nothing to do with the attack, but was the reason that a police officer was right there when the car hit those outside.

At a news conference, officials said that Horujko had just cleared the scene from the gas-leak alarm when, at 9:52 a.m., he saw a car strike several pedestrians who had been evacuated into the courtyard outside. He issued a radio alert that seven to eight pedestrians had been struck.

He said the driver got out of the car with a large knife and began attacking people, and he ordered the man to drop the knife.

The man refused and, by 9:53 a.m., he had been shot and killed.

Those who knew Artan say they’re shocked. Neighbors said his family had immigrated to the Columbus area from Somalia.

Jack Ouham owns the Hometown Market, which is just around the corner from where Artan lived with his family. He said that Artan came in there once or twice a day and had lived in an apartment with his mother and six or seven siblings.

“I don’t know what made him act like that,” Ouham said. “He don’t drink. He don’t smoke. He don’t use narcotics. They’re very nice people.”

Ohio State’s student newspaper interviewed Artan in August, shortly after he started at Ohio State. Artan talked about moving from Columbus State to such a large school, and being Muslim and the importance of prayer.

“This is my first day. This place is huge and I don’t even know where to pray,” he said. “I wanted to pray in the open, but I was kind of scared with everything going on in the media…I was kind of scared right now. But I just did it. I relied on God. I went to the corner and just prayed.”

After the suspect was identified, Ohio State President Dr. Michael Drake said, “What we really want to do is unify together, support each other.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions and perhaps create a bad situation where one doesn’t exist.”

Hakim Ouham said he often visited his uncle at his store and also knew Artan.

“He’s the last guy I’d expect,” Hakim Ouham said.

Artan also was a frequent customer of the nearby Khyber Restaurant, where he often picked up lamb gyros, said Niaz Siddiqui.

Siddiqui called Artan a “cool guy” who often talked to him about going to college.

Monday night, members of the central Ohio Muslim community gathered at the headquarters for the Center for American-Islamic Relations-Ohio in Dublin to talk about the attack.

Nichol Ghazi said that when she first heard, her reaction was “don’t let it be someone from our community.”

Ghazi, of Galena, offered sympathy for victims of the attack, and wanted the Ohio State community to know they stand with them. Her Muslim faith, she said, is not one that encourages violence, and said that Islam preaches, “‘If you take one life, it’s as if you’ve taken all of humanity. It’s that grievous of a sin.”

“OSU is our home,” added Abdi Dini, a member of the local Somali community. “Any twisted minds that would claim such a sickening act of violence is not a part of us.”

Campus officials have said that classes will continue normally Tuesday.

Around campus Monday night, students held several candlelight vigils and attended religious services.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church welcomed about 40 people for a 7 p.m. candlelight vigil led by religious leaders representing several faiths. The Woodruff Avenue church is just down the street from where the attack occurred.

The Rev. Karl Stephens, the church’s director of campus ministry, said he hopes all who attended the hourlong event found hope in unity.

“When a burden is borne, it’s better to be borne together than alone,” Stephens said. “During this time of such fear and shock, we need to support and unite our community.”

Students first learned of a problem when an “active shooter” alert was sent at 9:55 a.m. to the campus community, urging people to hide in place.

One 911 caller was outside with classmates after the building was cleared. He saw much of what happened.

“There was a guy who crashed his car into a bunch of people and ran out with a knife chasing down people,” the caller told 911 dispatchers.

The caller moments later, told the dispatcher that the crisis was over. “I think he is dead. I’m looking at him now. Never mind.”

At 11:30 a.m., the university said the scene was secure and that all classes were canceled for the day. The shelter-in-place order was lifted at 11:14 a.m., but more than a dozen buildings remained closed.

U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Democrat from Jefferson Township, called the campus emergency-alert system “life-saving” and praised OSU officials for instituting it. “Those things don’t just happen,” she said.

Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said it was “one of those days when you’re grateful for good training and great people.” He said police deserve particular credit for handling the incident well in a climate of contentious relations. “There has never been a more complicated and challenging time to be a police officer,” he said.

Ginther made no reference to Artan’s ethnicity or background but said he is proud that Columbus is “warm and welcoming” to immigrants and refugees. “We welcome people from all over the world,” he said.

Columbus police, Ohio State police and deputies with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office rushed to the scene. Students took to social media to find information, and posted video and pictures to Twitter of the scene.

Mike O’Connell, a senior from Dublin, said he did not hear shots, but got the alerts.

“I just had a class over here an hour ago,” he said. “This is insane. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Another student said she was in a business class when she received the emergency alert. She said she could see people running outside.

“We’re just staying safe, making sure everyone else is safe,” the sophomore said.

Peter Anderson, chairman of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, said he arrived at Watts Hall after the attack was over.

He said students told him that someone called in a fluorine leak in the building, which has lab facilities. As required during emergencies, the students congregated in the courtyard outside the building.

He said the attacker drove a car into the courtyard. “It’s where we hold our ice cream socials and when something like this happens,”Anderson said.

One victim was struck so hard that the person flew into the air and landed on a hard surface.

“It sounds very fortunate that bsed on what I heard, if this is not a life-threatening injury,” Anderson said.

Anderson said one of his colleagues, professor emeritus William Clark, was slashed in his lower leg by the attacker.

Upper Arlington and Grandview schools were locked down for a short time while police investigated the incident.

On Tuesday, Ohio State will mark one year since another fatal incident happened on campus. It was a year ago Nov. 29 that Dean Sturgis, a former security guard for the Wexner Center for the Arts, went into that building and started shooting at artwork in the gallery.

The center was evacuated and closed. SWAT officers found Sturgis, 62, dead after he shot himself. No one else was hurt.

CHRISTIAN DATOC

Reporter

The man behind Monday’s horrific attack at Ohio State University has been identified as Abdul Razak Ali Artan.

Ohio law enforcement officials confirmed to NBC News Monday afternoon that Artan — an 18-year-old freshman at OSU — was the man who plowed a car into a crowd of people on campus and subsequently attacked passers-by with a butcher’s knife.

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Burn Baby Burn, Disco Inferno

“Burn Baby Burn”

And do we know exactly who we are
We hold the light but we still listen to the dark
And it tells us that we don’t measure up
And it tells us that we’ll never be enough, tell me
Do we know exactly who we are

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Light up the night
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Oh oh oh
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And do we know exactly what we have
Why don’t we let it shine while we have the chance
It’s not so we can earn our place
We shine ‘cause we’ve been saved by grace, tell me
Do we know exactly what we have

We are the light
Light of the world
Light up the night
When will we learn
Now is our time
Now is our turn
To burn baby burn baby
Oh oh oh
Burn baby burn baby
Oh oh oh
Burn baby burn baby

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We are the light
Light of the world
Light up the night
When will we learn
Now is our time
Now is our turn
To burn baby burn baby
Oh oh oh
Burn baby burn baby
Oh oh oh
Burn baby burn baby